Kenneth Tynan - Biography - IMDb Kenneth Tynan Jump to: Overview (4) | Mini Bio (1) | Spouse (2) | Trivia (6) | Personal Quotes (5) Overview (4) Ken Mini Bio (1) Kenneth Tynan was one of the most famous theatrical critics of the 20th Century. He earned his own permanent place in the history of the English theater when he became the first dramaturg of Laurence Olivier , when the great actor finally realized his dream and became the director of the new National Theatre. Tynan's tenure at the National proved controversial, and he was forced to resign after championing Rolf Hochuth's play "Soldaten" ("Soldiers"), which essentially accused Winston Churchill , the wartime Prime Minister, of complicity in the murder of Free Poland's head of state, General Sikorsky.

(After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the opening of the secret files of Soviet intelligence agencies, it generally is assumed that Skiorsky was assassinated by the Soviets.) Born Kenneth Peacock Tynan in Birmingham, England on April 2, 1927, the illegitimate son of Sir Peter Peacock, the former mayor of Warrington, who was leading a double life with his mistress and assumed the name of Tynan. (His son did not find out the truth until his father's death in 1948). While at Oxford, he acted and produced play and won a reputation as a brilliant pubic speaker at the Oxford Union. He also edited and contributed to college magazines. In 1952, The London Evening Standard newspaper hired the 25-year old Tynan as a theater critic. He wasted no time in establishing a reputation for himself of recklessness, boldness, and iconoclasm.

He moved over to The Observer in 1954, and it there that he played a key role in the revolution of the London theater that began in the 1955-1956 theater season, with the debut of John Osborne 's watershed play Look Back in Anger (1959). He also championed Franco-Irish absurdist Samuel Beckett 's masterpiece "Waiting for Godot". But it was Osbourne's play that, overnight, made the English theater that immediately preceded it old-fashioned and out-of- date, making such popular playwrights Terence Rattigan seem almost obsolete. From his pulpit at The Observer, Tynan espoused the theatrical realism of the group of playwrights that became known as The Angry Young Men (and whose works were derided by the proponents of a more genteel theater as "kitchen sink drama"). Laurence Olivier, keen to not let fashion slip by him and become a living relic himself, became a convert to The Angry Young Man school, partly through Tynan's criticism and partly through the praise of Arthur Miller , with whom he had seen "Look Back in Anger" at the theater.

Olivier approached Osbourne, who wrote "The Entertainer" -- one of Olivier's greatest roles -- for the theatrical knight. In 1963, when Olivier was named artistic director at the state-subsidized National Theatre, he appointed Tynan dramaturg, or literary adviser. Tynan had recommended himself for the job. After the appointment, Tynan left The Observer for the National Theatre, where he established an international reputation for himself. He had been contributing pieces to The New Yorker since 1958, but during the '60s, he became one of the most influential people working in the English-language theater, welcomed on both sides of The Pond. In many ways, Tynan was at the right place at the right time. He wanted to overturn censorship and extend the boundaries of speech, and the 1960s were a propitious time for iconoclasts. He has the distinction of being the first person to use the "f"-word on English television, on a November 13, 1965, BBC broadcast of a live TV debate. The incident caused a public outcry and condemnation in Parliament.

One biographer said that his use of the word was "his masterpiece of calculated self-publicity". The BBC had to issue a formal apology, and the fallout from the notoriety eventually hurt Tynan's career as he was banned from British TV. Tynan had gotten The Observer to publish an "obscene" word in 1960, and by 1969, he was prepared to branch out into pornography, in the spirit of the times which saw Tom O'Horgan and others in the UK and America introduce nudity on stage. Thus, his musical production of "Oh! Calcutta!" can be seen as part of his campaign against censorship and his taboo-breaking propensity for expanding expression. "Oh! Calcutta!", a kind of erotic revue featuring scenes written by such authors as Beckett and John Lennon , featured music and dance, but the selling point to the public was that its performers, both male and female, were often nude. The show ran for decades, though Tynan himself made only about $250,000 from it.

In the new decade of the 1970s, Tynan adapted (along with director Roman Polanski ), Shakespeare's of Macbeth (1971) for producer Hugh M. Hefner of Playboy Magazine fame. The movie, before its release, became notorious for nude witches and a sleep-walking scene in the buff by Lady Macbeth. When it was finally screened, the movie was attacked more for its graphic violence than its nudity, which was modest. This version of The Scottish Play (so-called as the play is supposed to bring bad luck to actors who mention its name) made Tynan even more notorious, and his position at the National Theatre became even more precarious. He quit in 1972, while Olivier, who had supported his dramaturg in the "Soldaten" episode and others to the detriment of his position with the toffs who oversaw the NT, followed him in 1973. Tynan's position in England deteriorated, as the vitality that had infused British and theater and film for a generation after the Suez Crisis had waned by Edward Heath's Tory government of 1970-74.

He and his family moved to southern California in 1976. Although his influence on theater was now dissipated, he continued to write and be published, pieces for the The New Yorker, and books. Kenneth Tynan died on July 26, 1980in Santa Monica, California, of a pulmonary emphysema. He was repatriated after death and buried in Holywell Cemetery, Oxford. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Jon C. Hopwood Spouse (2) Oh, Calcutta! Summary - eNotes.com Oh, Calcutta! Summary link Link Oh, Calcutta! premiered at the Eden Theater in New York City on June 17, 1969, and in London the following year. Originally devised by the drama critic, author, and journalist Kenneth Tynan, as “an evening of elegant erotica,” it was conceived and directed by Jacques Levy during a period in America when sexuality was being extensively explored, both in the arts and the general population. As an enthusiastic admirer of the nightclub performances of Lenny Bruce, Tynan had always been a vociferous opponent of the theater censorship that existed in England from the mid-eighteenth century.

In 1965 he wrote that governments effectively control artists in two ways, through direct censorship, and through withholding subsidies, thereby forcing the playwrights “to turn out lovable, undisturbing after-dinner entertainment.” Tynan believed that erotic stimulation was a legitimate function of art, good or bad. Oh, Calcutta! was basically a musical revue consisting of sketches and group musical numbers by various writers. However, the show included blatant nudity, simulation of sexual intercourse, and libidinous humor, all of which shocked the New York critics, who described it as hard-core pornography, brutalizing, degrading, tedious, and witless, but also “shatteringly effective.” Audiences flocked to see the show. Besides enjoying long runs in New York and London, it was performed in cities throughout the world, though in Australia’s South Australia and Victoria states performances were banned. Start Free Trial Start your free trial with eNotes to access more than 30,000 study guides. Get help with any book.

Kenneth Tynan - Playwright email: n/a Website: n/a Literary Agent: n/a Kenneth Peacock Tynan (2 April 1927 - 26 July 1980) was an English theatre critic and writer. Making his initial impact as a critic at The Observer (1954-1958, 1960-63), he praised Osborne's Look Back in Anger (1956), and encouraged the emerging wave of British theatrical talent. In 1963, Tynan was appointed as the new National Theatre Company's literary manager. An opponent of theatre censorship, he was the first person to say 'fuck' on British television, which was very controversial at the time. Later in his life he settled in California where he resumed his writing career. - Wicki Buy Plays with Doollee Each page of doollee.com has links to play/book outlets, either directly to the Publisher, through Stageplays.com and Amazon to the second hand and 1st editions of AbeBooks. These links will automatically take you to the relevant area obviating the need for further search. Oh! Calcutta! Oh! Calcutta! Oh!

Calcutta! was a long-running avant-garde theatrical revue, created by British drama critic Kenneth Tynan. The show, consisting of various sketches on sex-related topics, debuted in Off-Broadway in 1969. It proved, once again, that sex sells, running in London for over 2,400 performances, and in New York for over 1,600. The show sparked considerable controversy at the time, because it featured extended scenes of total nudity, both male and female. The title is taken from a painting by Clovis Trouille, itself a pun on "O quel cul t'as!", French for "What an ass you have!". Tynan had hoped that Harold Pinter would direct the production, in order to give it avant-garde legitimacy, but Pinter declined. (The original director was Jacques Levy, remembered by most now as the songwriting partner of Bob Dylan on his album Desire.) Most of the sketches (written, amongst others, by Nobel prize winner Samuel Beckett, John Lennon, Sam Shepard, Edna O'Brien, Jules Feiffer, and Tynan himself) featured the cast naked (including Bill Macy).

Peter Schickele (aka 'PDQ Bach'), Robert Dennis and Stanley Walden were the revue's composers, known as The Open Window. A pay-per-view video production played on closed-circuit TV in select cities in 1971, and in 1972 a motion picture version was also released - in both cases many cities and municipalities banned its showing. A 1976 Broadway revival at the Edison Theatre ran for thirteen years, briefly becoming the longest-running play in Broadway history, with a total of 5,959 performances.

- Wikipedia Notes: Conceived by Kenneth Tynan; Contributions by Samuel Beckett, Jules Feiffer, Dan Greenburg, John Lennon, Jacques Levy, Leonard Melfi, David Newman, Robert Benton, Sam Shepard, Clovis Trouille, Kenneth Tynan And Sherman Yellen; Music And Lyrics, The Open Window: Robert Dennis, Peter Schickele And Stanley Walden; Musical Director: Norman Bergen 1st Produced: Eden Theatre, Off Broadway, NY 17 Jun 1969 Organisations: *Tynan, Kenneth | united architects - essays Tynan, Kenneth British, 1927–1980 The popular image of Kenneth Tynan has been one of a cultural and social provocateur, a reputation stemming from his various gestures on behalf of the sexual revolution of the 19605, notably the erotic revue he devised with others, Oh! Calcuttal! (1969). Of far greater significance, though, was his contribution to British theater as the most respected and influential of postwar theater critics, and as the first literary manager of Britain’s National Theatre, working under Laurence Olivier.

Underlying all of these activities was the fundamental skill which he deployed in all his areas of interest—his ability to write strikingly expressive prose. This was underpinned by his sheer love of language, a passion ingrained at an early age—in 1944, the precocious 16-yearold described himself as a “soft old word fancier,” advising a close friend to “worry about words; they are the only consistent elements in your life. as remy de gourmont [sic] said, ‘ideas are well enough until you are twenty; after that only words will do.’” Tynan’s early letters and articles for school and university magazines reveal an omnivorous intelligence using an eclectic array of verbal means—from puns and clerihews to French quotations and Latin tags—to recount his personal experiences, to elaborate his constantly changing views on literature and the world, and, most tellingly, to document keenly his avid theater-going. These early writings show him constantly searching for the precise phrase both to represent his state of mind as spectator and to bring alive the material characteristics of performances.

His student notes and writings resulted in his first book of theatrical observations, He That Plays the King (1950), published when he was 23. He became a fulltime theater critic, after coming down from Oxford, until the early 1960s. His prose of that period consists largely of short pieces of around 1000 words—perhaps too short to be normally considered as essays. Yet Tynan developed a style of rich compression, which probed and scraped away the generalized impressions typical of so much writing in the genre, to achieve a muscular directness and concreteness of evocation. Cumulatively, the reviews also constitute a larger exploration of the nature of performance per se and an affirmation of Tynan’s belief in the importance of theater in the overall cultural fabric. (The appropriation of Hazlitt’s title A View of the English Stage for his 1975 compilation of reviews—perhaps an act of both audacity and deference—suggests their essayistic ambition.) It could be said that these individual pieces are essay-like in their depth of examination and in their grounding of the writer’s subjective view in persuasive terms of debate.

In reviews of actors, comics, and other performers, his prose displays a kind of filmic rhythm, swooping in for close-ups before drawing away to restore balance and an overarching perspective. This is evident even in an early review, of Olivier as Shakespeare’s Richard III (1944), where Tynan homes in on the voice—“slick, taunting, and curiously casual; nearly impersonal, ‘smooth as sleekstone’, patting and pushing each line into place. Occasionally he lets out a gurgling, avuncular cackle, a goodhumoured snarl: and then we see the over-riding mephitic good humour of the man”—before panning out to consider the overall interpretation as exemplifying “Blake’s conception of active, energetic evil,” with analogies to Sidney’s elegiacs and Gor’kii’s Lower Depths. Tynan’s writing grew more versatile as his theatrical experience deepened.

While the wit, use of apposite phrase, and crystalline precision of description remained constant, his style grew in flexibility, and his responses—in accordance with his gradual assumption of idealist/socialist ideas about the perfectibility of humankind—were increasingly adumbrated by a greater sense of social and political concern, reflected particularly in his admiration for Bertolt Brecht. Stylistically, he could resort both to playful pastiche (as in his affectionate Runyonesque review of the musical Guys and Dolls, 1952.) and to pointed parody (in his “Slamm’s Last Knock,” 1958, a mock-Beckettian two-hander bemoaning the increasingly fatalistic ennui of Beckett’s characters), while also making bold and confident claims for works he championed.

Welcoming Beckett’s Waiting for Godot (1955), he stated that “it forced me to re-examine the rules which have hitherto governed the drama; and having done so, to pronounce them not elastic enough”; and he eulogized John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger (1956) for presenting “post-war youth as it really is,” famously concluding: “I doubt if I could love anyone who did not wish to see Look Back in Anger. It is the best young play of its decade.” On taking up his post at the National Theatre, Tynan gave up regular theater reviewing. His writings thenceforward were of a more occasional, but more varied, nature. In the athletic metaphor he used on several occasions, the short-distance “sprinting” of the reviews increasingly came to be replaced by the “middle-distance” running of essayfeatures. The subdivisions of his collection Tynan Right and Left (1967)—“Theatre,” “Cinema,” “People,” “Places,” and “Comments and Causeries”—usefully summarize the fields of all his longer writing.

Earlier pieces tend to be commentaries on theatrical subjects—overviews of the careers of actors, writers, and directors, considerations of theater styles (e.g. “Prose and the Playwright,” “The Lost Art of Bad Drama,” 1954), and unashamedly partisan interventions in larger cultural debates, such as lobbying for the establishment of a National Theatre (“The National Theatre: A Speech to the Royal Society of Arts,” 1964) and the removal of theater censorship (“The Royal Smut-Hound,” 1965). These articles appeared in a variety of publications, including the Harper’s Bazaar, the Observer, the New Yorker, Playboy, and Holiday. The form of essay in which Tynan came to specialize, however, was the profileessay— the portrait of an outstanding individual who was either an epitome of his or her type or, very often, considered by Tynan to be sui generis. The earlier of these were more obviously logical extensions of his theatrical and cinematic experiences, allowing him to synthesize instances of performance into larger characterizations of an individual’s style and significance, while also supplying biographical and anecdotal sidelights.

But the profile-essay especially allowed him to take the notion he elaborated of “high definition performance”—“supreme professional polish, hard-edged technical skill…the hypnotic saving grace of high and low art alike, the common denominator that unites tragedy, ballroom dancing, conversation and cricket”—and apply it to a wide range of people, taking in other expressive artists (writers, matadors, jazz musicians, film directors, television personalities), pursuing the attributes of the performative in both an individual’s public and private lives. Of all the publications to which Tynan contributed profiles, none was more important to him than the New Yorker, the magazine which the teenage Tynan revered in provincial Birmingham as representing the peak of American urbanity and sophistication, and whose style under its editor Harold Ross he lauded in 1951 as “pungent and artless, innocently sly, superbly explicit: what one would call low-falutin’.” Collaborating now with William Shawn, Ross’ successor, Tynan spent much of his last years writing his longest profiles for the New Yorker.

The magazine’s image and scope of interest was, in some quarters, then deemed somewhat conservative (essays such as Tynan’s 1966 “Meditations on Basic Baroque,” on the erotic history of the female bottom, understandably appeared elsewhere—despite its references to James Joyce, François Villon, Henry Vaughan, and Edmund Burke!). More importantly, however, Tynan shared the New Yorker’s high sense of writerly discipline, admiring its punctiliousness enough to spend hours in discussion with the editor and his staff over phraseology. In the preface to Show People (1980)—the collection of his final, longer New Yorker profiles—Tynan offered a context for his writing, and, in characteristically witty vein, an explicit defense of the essay form: “Many critics maintain that the essay is an inferior form… Out of the window—if these experts are right—goes Montaigne.

To the bonfire with William Hazlitt, closely followed by Max Beerbohm, SainteBeuve and John Aubrey…and into the garbage goes Samuel Johnson’s Lives ofthe Poets, perhaps the finest book of profileessays ever written… Any theory that regards works like these as second-class…is transparently dotty.” While not comparing himself to all the “masters” he cited, he felt he might “go a couple of rounds” with Charles Lamb. The pieces that follow—on writer Tom Stoppard, actor Ralph Richardson, television star Johnny Carson, silent-film actress Louise Brooks, and comedian Mel Brooks—tackle high and low culture with equal verve, in each case mapping out the contours of a distinctive terrain. Tynan’s profiles vary in tone and orientation—here, for example, the Louise Brooks piece is a kind of homage to a forgotten star and personal idol, the Mel Brooks piece delves into the relationship of comedy, fear, and ambition, and the Stoppard article is an extended musing on writing, style, and political commitment.

But, while all include many examples of “vintage” Tynan, in his reportage of personal encounters (performances, dinner parties, interviews, letters), such elements are subtly worked into a widening and deepening perspective. A profile often begins obliquely, by virtue of apparently unrelated anecdotes or random information; then essential biographical information is lightly introduced, and thereafter the portrait is built up incrementally, as a shape and thesis emerge. The profile is rounded out by quotations from others on the subject and the deployment of a battery of cultural references. The most marked contrast with the shorter writings is the cooler, analytical quality that emerges in a more measured pace; the sprinting, dazzling prose is calmed by direct, yet always elegantly written, exposition and by pertinent, well-grounded comment. At Tynan’s funeral, Tom Stoppard summarized the potency of Tynan’s writing as resting in “his paragraphs—paragraphs were the units of his prose, not sentences,” written to “outlast the witness.” While this quality contributes to the exceptional eloquence of his theater reviews, nowhere is the comment more apposite than in regard to the later profile-essays.

It is ultimately in this sense of creating a permanence for the ephemeral through the written word, so that the prose fascinates even when its subject may be only dimly familiar to the reader, that Tynan lays claim to a place in the history of the modern essay. MARK HAWKINS-DADY Biography Kenneth Peacock Tynan. Born 2 April 1927 in Birmingham. Studied at King Edward’s School, Birmingham, 1938–45; Magdalen College, Oxford, 1945–48, B.A. in English, 1948. Director, Lichfield repertory theater company, 1949; director, 1950, and actor, 1951, London. Married Elaine Brimberg Dundy, 1951 (divorced, 1964): one daughter.

Drama critic for the Spectator, 1951–52, the Evening Standard, 1952–53, and the Daily Sketch, 1953–54; drama critic, 1954–58 and 1960–63, and film critic, 1964–66, the Observer, script editor, Ealing Films, London, 1956–58; drama critic, 1958–60, and feature writer, 1976–80, the New Yorker; editor, Tempo television arts program, 1961– 62; literary manager, 1963–69, and literary consultant, 1969–73, National Theatre of Britain, London. Married Kathleen Halton, 1967: one daughter and one son. Moved to California for health reasons, 1976. Died (of emphysema) in Santa Monica, California, 26 July 1980.

Selected Writings He That Plays the King: A View of the Theatre, 1950 Persona Grata, 1953 Curtains: Selections from the Drama, Criticism and Related Writings, 1961; as Tynan on Theatre, 1964 Tynan Right and Left, 1967 A View of the English Stage, 1944–63, 1975 The Sound of Two Hands Clapping, 1975 Show People: Profiles in Entertainment, 1980 Profiles, edited by Kathleen Tynan and Ernie Eban, 1989 Other writings: books on Alec Guinness (1953) and bull fighting (1955), radio plays, theater adaptations, and correspondence. Also collaborated on the revue Oh! Calcutta! (1969).

Further Reading Kihn, Patricia Lenehan, Kenneth Tynan and the Renaissance of Post-War British Drama (dissertation), Detroit: Wayne State University, 1986 Tynan, Kathleen, The Life of Kenneth Tynan, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, and New York: Morrow, 1987 STAGE REVIEW : 'Oh! Calcutta!' Revue Still a Terrible Show - latimes YOU ARE HERE: LAT Home → Collections STAGE REVIEW : 'Oh! Calcutta!' Revue Still a Terrible Show February 20, 1990 |MARK CHALON SMITH ANAHEIM — With its heh-heh-heh nudity and dirty jokes, "Oh! Calcutta!" immediately became a Broadway winner in 1969, despite repeated lashings by critics. Tourists eager for an eyeful and an earful routinely put the musical revue on their list of things to do. The success of "Oh! Calcutta!" proved the notion that really bad theater could still make money as long as the public was intrigued by a gimmick.

That may still be the abiding idea behind the traveling show that settled into the Celebrity Theatre Sunday for two performances. Ticket-buyers, probably more curious than anything else, still turned up, and "Oh! Calcutta!" is still a terrible show. At least when it opened, this collaborative effort--devised by British drama critic Kenneth Tynan and featuring uninspired, sexually oriented writing by the usually inspired likes of Samuel Beckett, Sam Shepard, John Lennon and Jules Feiffer--could, barely, justify itself as something of a comment on the sexual attitudes of the day. Now, it seems strikingly dated and cliched. "Oh! Calcutta!" isn't necessarily inappropriate (although the Jack raping Jill bit in the first act is creepily offensive), it's worse--it's artless, pointless and boring. At Sunday's matinee, the Mac Clarke-directed skits, ranging from a young couple having second thoughts about swinging to hi-jinks in a sexual experimentation lab done a la the Marx Brothers, thudded with dull, tired humor. And the softer, erotic ballets and ensemble dances were derivative and uninvolving.

Choreographer Cheryl Hartley's non-Equity cast (Jon Chernes, Tracy Gilchrist, B. J. Grogan, Amy Harwood, Grace Little, Peter Mannion, Nancy Rollins and Michael Lee Walker, in various roles) did take off their clothes with some dexterity. Actually, the actors did try to instill this exhausted piece with a little vitality by assuming a dashing vaudevillian tempo, but to no avail. Lewis Folden's cart-and-carry set was functional but only that. Robert Hale's lighting was most effective during the dance numbers when it was more muted; it was too glaring at other times. 'OH! CALCUTTA!' A Singer Entertainment Consultants Ltd. production of the musical revue devised by Kenneth Tynan. Directed by Mac Clarke. With Jon Chernes, Tracy Gilchrist, B. J. Grogan, Amy Harwood, Grace Little, Peter Mannion, Nancy Rollins and Michael Lee Walker. Choreography by Cheryl Hartley. Set by Lewis Folden. Lighting by Robert Hale. Musical direction by Barry Harwood.

MORE: Brydon to play Tynan role in 'hardcore' drama | News | The Stage Share Now The life of controversial theatre critic Kenneth Tynan is to be featured in a new 60-minute drama for digital channel BBC4. Actor Rob Brydon, best known for his performance in the award-winning Marion and Geoff, is to take the title role in Kenneth Tynan - In Praise of Hardcore. Written and directed by Chris Durlacher who won an Emmy for his work on George Orwell - A Life in Pictures, the production also features Olivier Award nominee Catherine McCormack as Tynan's wife Kathleen and Julian Sands as Laurence Olivier, with whom Tynan had a close but tumultuous friendship.

Janice Hadlow, the channel's controller, said: "After the highly successful The Alan Clark Diaries of last winter, I'm delighted that we have a new drama based on the life of another famous British rogue - and with such prestigious credentials on-screen and off." Often celebrated for his acerbic, uncompromising and insightful style, Tynan wrote for the Evening Standard and The Observer in the fifties and sixties, and later become Olivier's literary manager with the newly formed National Theatre company in 1963. He also devised the controversial erotic stage revue Oh, Calcutta! Tynan died in 1980, aged 53. His diaries were published three years ago and revealed his abuse of alcohol and prescription drugs. * Veteran Radio 2 broadcaster John Dunn has died aged 70 following a battle with cancer. The Glasgow-born presenter joined the network in 1967 and presented Breakfast Special and Late Night Extra before moving on to his Drivetime programme. He won Radio Personality of the Year three times and has broadcast from all over the world, making radio history in 1996 when he aired his show live from Antarctica.

An obituary is to follow in a future edition of The Stage. The Cincinnati Enquirer from Cincinnati, Ohio on September 2, 1970 &middot; Page 8 What members have found on this page OCR Text a THE CINCINNATI ENQUIRER Wednesday, September 2. 1970 Amusements A. Doll Plays A Musical 'Maine' "At Dayton H M M H RATIIIG! LIZA RATES OSCAR IN TOP DRAMA" TtxJL best Mame as seen in either the stage version or this musical version of the Patrick Dennis novel. She. of course, has the advantage of being an exceptionally gifted dancer. And her singing voice belts as forcefully but much prettily than Merman's. New. the gift of dance does an actress well on the stage. Miss Miller doesn't walk or run. Rather she glides with a beautiful grace. Her senuences with young By GEORGE PALMER Enquirer Theater Critic DAYTON It would not be too far-fetched to suspect that you have never really seen the musical "Mame" unless you have seen Ann Miller portray the kooKle aunt.

The chance comes during theTiest of this week at Memorial Hall here in the final show of a generally excellent season. Miss Miller is by far the side as looking like Rhett Butler of GWTW fame. And by golly Jack Davidson, sans mustache, does resemble Gable in a way. He played the southern gentleman with a gentle ease. All together a pleasant evening. "Mame" is old hat kind of musical theater, but the songs are melodic, the production songs are funny and plot-pushers and you will like "We need a little Christmas" and of course, the title song. Best of all you'll see Ann Miller. She's a doll. Diana Baffa, who recreated the original dance steps for the Kenley production. Other excellent portrayls in "Mame" were turned in by Charlotte Fairchild, as Vera, the male-spitting actress friend of Mame; Terry CMara, who as a young woman playing the character role Gooch, was very effective; and Hazel Steck, who deserves her own round of applause she played four different parts in the show. A line in the musical refers to Beauregard Burn- dled. And "Mame" is no cinch to stage.

There are 10 scenes in the first act and six in the second. This calls' for very smooth transition on the part of those backstage in lowering and raising flies, shoving sets on the stage and getting curtains and drops to come in on the button. Leslie Cutler, who directed, is to be congradu-lated for pacing his musicals swiftly. Credit also should be given to choreographer, TV Steven Britt. who plays young Patrick Dennis, are beautifully manipulated. You're watching an old pro work with, and at the same time, guide, a very young boy through a role that is not simplp to bring off. When I say old pro, that is not a reflection on Miss Miller's real age- I dont know that anyway and I dont want to know. 1 And young Master Britt, as h?r main companion in the story, does bring off the roie as Patrick. The little fellow come to think of it I den't know his age eiither the little guy digs right in. dances, sings, speaks his lines loud and clear. The two together really look like a swinging aunt traveling with her real, smart nephew.

As usual in a John Ken-ley production, the stage is most attractively han OTTO PREMINGER RLM i-lhe people 1 jSSE-" next door ELI WALLACH JULIE HARRIS lizaminnelli ken Howard robertmoore janes coco kay thompson fred Williamson .pete seeger. old devil time ZZuknm.. l III' ' vMaritpMrfk 41- Oh! Calcutta!' To Shubert EXCLUSIVE ENGAGEMENT TONIGHT 7:20 AND 9:30 13311112 P'ONE OR TWO MILLION LAUGHS Greater Cincinnatians will have a chance to see the controversial musical, "Oh! C a 1 c u 1 1 a!" at the Shubert Theater on September 28. The performance will be -AUCHdl WINSItN.HXPOSr Conlinuou, IMON.

thru WUK.I: tiom 7 PM imiDJI, MIUKDAT I SUNDMI: horn 2 fM m will "THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT ?3Sff(atDriv-lnnl "FOUR CLOWNS IOSTON GLOBE AMERICAN FILM IN MONTHS" .Us second year at New York's Eden Theater. The erotic revue was devised by drama critic Kenneth Tynan, head of England's National Theater. Writers who contributed sections to the revue include Samuel Beckett, Jules Felffer, Dan Green-burg, John Lennon, Jacques Levy, Sam Shep-ard, Tynan and others. Levy directed the original. The cast for the electronic version includes the top performers from the Broadway original plus others from the San Francisco company. A Lexington, Ky., firm will bring in the equipment necessary at the Shubert for the closed circuit showing of the piped to the Shubert and some other 250 theaters and drive-ins across the nation by closed circuit, television. The production, direct from New York via cable, will be held at 9 p. m., one performance only.

SHUBERT TICKETS are scaled at $12 for an orchestra seat, and $10 in the balcony, all taxes included. Mail orders should be sent directly to the Shubert Theater. Hillard Elkins, producer of the Broadway hit, confirmed Tuesday that the show will be telecast nationwide. The gross potential in the one night electronic stand is expected to be $5 million. "Oh! Calcutta!" is now in X. SV, 3 jack LEr.uOH sai:dydei:::is A NEIL SIMON STORY theout-of-tow;:ebs JAMES FRANCISCUS KIM HUNTER the mninmnn TlfflWIIWHl ftlUG 111111111111111 tXGsegory Peck Anne Heywood . UST 7 DAYS! SM Orrtctory Par Show lfffiiiii-iiij3rat?TTJ 1 1 f?l:MK C EHOTft IMC CHOPPER OUTLAWS!..

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N I'Co " 1 a oowqomoooc aow a ' ' " f 10 111 Priest In Love Robert Forster plays the role of a priest who falls in love with a divorced woman, Lauren Hutton, in the film, "Pieces of Dreams," opening Wednesday at The Place, Cincinnati's newest intimate theater at Seventh and Race. Actor-Director Listed 'mm New Showing'. Now Showing! and performed in "Anasta-sia," "Visit to a Small Planet" and "Bell, Book and Candle " Starring jo on baez joe cocker country joe & the fish crosby.ihlls & nosh orloguthrie nchielioveni jimi hendrix jontonotjohn iebaitian ifia-no na $!y 4 the (omily ttone 'en years after tine who and 400,000 other beautiful people.

V CHARLTON HESTON afiimbymichael wadleigh GEORGE HAUL GLSCOTTMALDEN mw mi Bill Butterworth, actor and director with the Mariemont Players, one of the area's oldest community theaters, has been named to "Who's Who in American Theater." He received the announcement of the listing in a telegram Tuesday from the American National Theater Academy (ANTA). Formerly a board member of ANTA, Butterworth has directed "Mary, Mary" and "Sunday in New York" for the Mariemont Players, beyond the age of innocence into the age of awareness ; Our trouble-shooting 'CSSB sheriii JAMES GARNER THE BOSTON It's all in - WOOfJSOCt! And now it's all at popular prices wrtoo iodn itbouoo Xl no no vlyj Ike lom.l, uo. .tt., ,tof i o'lpt . r .1 o . nnH JOO 000 hnw U ptoplo o i.im bymichael wad leigh .

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lr of GBaeam' i- W i r ISO WHir iTif m "The epic American Ull war movi-that HSl -BfJ ' wan,ed ,0 made, -i&EFhi but never had the CSCOMMAMHiN gga guis to oo betore. t film nctiiTM mouit i scmnmi rtooucTion ALPHA VI PRINCETON Start, 8 00 P.M. NOW AT THESE CONVENIENTLY LOCATED THEATRES Start, 8 00 P.M. Nov; Showing Cincinnati's Newest Downtown Cinema TMBBHT 711 RACE STREET In tht Ntw GARFIELD TOWER Fmtum: lli43l:504:W6Ma:m9:33 feSlliJ3irttTffi - v. 2nd Big Color Drive-In Hits listed in Drive-In Directory Ads. Newspapers 1000+ images about Oh Calcutta on Pinterest | Vintage photos, Nyc and Musicals OH! CALCUTTA!

#Broadway show photos from #1976 at The Edison #Theatre with #MusicalTheatre in full frontal live on Broadway ( See More

Question: The drama critic Kenneth Tynan devised which controversial 1969 musical revue?
Answer: OH CALCUTTA